


Some things never change

by samodivax



Category: Red Eye (2005)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-21
Updated: 2014-11-21
Packaged: 2018-02-26 12:53:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2652698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samodivax/pseuds/samodivax
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lisa Reisert is an optimist. There's little else she can be, really. But life keeps finding different ways to tear her down. Now, ten years after surviving an assassination plot she was forced into, she is a regular divorced single mother, about as content with life as she could be. That is, until a certain individual from the past she'd later keep burried comes knocking on her door, for the last reason she'd ever expect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Perhaps the biggest tragedy in life is that even when the good ones win, they don't. The case against Jackson, taking place about a month and a half after the incident, was fruitless. Jackson Rippner did not seem to exist, aside from the seemingly legitimate documentation that said he did. There was no information on his parents, no family or relatives, no old friends or acquantances to speak of.

There were no fingerprints in the authorities' database, and when the police had tried to dig deeper, maybe pull up a file from somewhere beyond their jurisdiction, their supperiors had shut them down. Leese was told this much at least, after a hushed conversation with a compassionate detective. She had the eerie feeling that the government had more to do with the lot of it than she was led on to believe.

Court wasn't any better; Lisa (and her father) had done Rippner some serious damage - it was a miracle he survived, they said. But both parties had pleaded self-defense - eye witnesses claimed Lisa was the one to harm Jackson, and the fact she stole a car didn't really help her case. A car which she later ran a man over with. Jackson had testified against her, claiming she was dellusional - something about grief taking over, having too much to drink, just about anything to make her look dirtier than she was.

What hurt the most was that Lisa was being prosecuted, too. After the worst night of her life, she was being held to the same standart as the _monster_ who briefly held her father's life in his hands, attempted to kill her, and organised the attempted murder of an entire family... and none of it could be proved. Their conversation was hushed, no witnesses could back Lisa's claim, and if they could, she somehow doubted they would. As far as anyone outside the immediate area of the whole thing was concerned, Lisa and Jackson were both just equally troubled individuals, who possibly posed a significant threat to society. Only difference being, Lisa was confirmed to have killed someone that day.

In the end, the odds weren't in anyone's favour - Jackson had chased her, had fingerprints on the weapons found in her house, and Lisa's father testified against him, too. But the bastard had gotten off the hook. As far as the jury was concerned, or so he and his equally deceptive attorney had convinced them, Jackson Rippner was a charming young man who only tried to console a grieving woman who repayed that gratitude by attacking him, and he followed her with the sole purpose of making sure she'd be alright.

Jackson Rippner did not set foot inside prison after that case was closed. The mere fact that Lisa had broken more laws than him - puncturing his trachea, escaping airport security, stealing a car, running over a man with a _stolen_ car... the jury was biased from the moment they heard what she'd done, and no one could prove that Jackson was involved with the plot against Keefe, or that he'd acted in anything but self-defense. In truth, Lisa suspected that further evidence that could've landed him in prison was eliminated - his phone, his assassin's personal possessions, virtually anything that could've made him look as much as suspicious was gone.

It seemed to be a miracle Lisa herself wasn't imprisoned by the time it was all over. In fact, if it weren't for Keefe's interfering, she'd probably have done a considerable amount of jail time herself.

After Jackson was proven "not guilty", Lisa had actually faced the risk of loosing her job at the Lux Atlantic. Once again however, Keefe had pulled a few strings. If Lisa had let him, the man would've made sure Jackson was sent to the darkest dungeon imagineable (if not straight to hell) but she couldn't have that. Interfering with evidence and a process like that... it wouldn't go well for anyone. And as much as she had lost faith in the justice system years prior to that case, she knew two wrongs wouldn't make a right.

Shortly after Jackson had disappeared off the face of the earth, however, Lisa began to wonder if maybe it wouldn't have been so bad to cheat the system.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if anyone was left confused, but the first chapter was in retrospect, now _this_ is where my humble take on what happens ten years down the road is. Mostly describing Lisa's life, so it'll be relevant information for later chapters, probably.

Lisa Reisert always did have a busy scheduale, but she happened to like it that way. She loved it, the sense of security that came with knowing what should happen next, relished in it like it was a life line that kept the world from falling appart. In a sense, it _did_.

Her days started mostly the same way - get up, get clean, get dressed, get food. Monday to Friday though, getting up was a teeny bit earlier to get the kids ready for daycare. Josephine, aged five, was an artist in the making, incapable of keeping her hands clean and drawing with her food if paint could not be provided. Inspiring really, but all the tablecloth artistry seemed to do was restore Lisa's faith in detergent comercials and find her something more to busy herself with. Charlotte, aged four, was miraculously both quieter _and_ more energetic. Ever since she learned to walk, no matter how many times Lisa barricaded her inside her crib, the little rugrat somehow managed to escape, giving Lisa a scare when she'd wake up to find a tiny creature raiding her drawers. She often thought about putting a bell on her and saving herself some trouble.

Lisa's clock went off at seven thirty. She groaned, like every other morning, and got up. By eight, she was done with the bathroom (courtesy of her two-in-one shampoo and conditioner) and by eight thirty she was dressed helping the girls get themselves ready. Hard boiled eggs, toast, a pancake with maple syrup, a pancake with peanut butter and bananas, one glass of orange juice, one cup of mango juice (and it was _always_ a cup, because Charlie loved tea parties), and one mug of milked-down coffee later, and breakfast was served.

"Is it tasty, sweetie?" She cooed lovingly at Josey, who noisily munched down on the maple goodness and giggled. "I'm glad!"

Charlie was too concentrated on her banana pancake to pay attention to either of them.

Lisa drank her coffee, quietly eyeing the girls like a hawk. The uneasy feeling that something wasn't right haunted her. Had she forgotten the stove on? Left a window open? Forgotten her keys? She got up, setting her mug on a rather tall counter (Josey was infinately curious and Lisa didn't want her drowning caffeine) and checked the floor.

Nothing.

Every door was locked, every window - closed. Everything was in place yet the air seemed heavier, the tiny knot of dread in her stomach steadily growing.

When she got back to the kitchen it was barely even nine, which meant she could stop by the gas station on her way to the daycare instead of on the way back. She washed Josey's hands and wipped off the peanut butter from Charlie's mouth, got the car set and buckled them in their seats. The streets weren't as busy as usual, but the gas station was brimming with cars. Lisa did not relish the thought of leaving the girls in the car without her, and so, she drove onward to their kindergarten. Nine thirty, on the dot, and she carried Charlie while Josey dragged behind, hand in her mother's. She escorted them to their teachers, making sure they knew the girls shouldn't have any more sugar, needed their naps and that she'd come back to pick them up at about four PM. A bit too much maybe, but Lisa'd rather not take any risks, as melodramatic as it sounded even to her.

When she came back home, knowing her girls were safely in the care of teachers she knew, the tension still wouldn't go away. _The dog,_ she thought, _it's because the dog passed away._ A loyal companion of nearly ten years, Rover (generic as the name might've been) was a german shepherd who guarded her home and children since before she had either. The house was all too quiet without the loud pitter-patter of large paws on the tile floor and the excited bark and tail-wagging whenever she came home. On more than one ocassion, Rover was the one who pulled Lisa through hard times - she often joked with her father that Rover was the only other man who could never disappoint her.

So unused to the quiet, Lisa didn't even register that the pitter-patter from the kitchen was not from paws.


End file.
